English

Evidence of dynamical dark energy found via the DESI DR2 Lyman$\alpha$ forest

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2026-05-27 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We present a comprehensive analysis of the cosmological implications of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 2 (DR2) Lyman-α\alpha forest baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements, combined with DESI DR2 galaxy BAO, Type Ia supernova samples (Pantheon+^+, DES-Dovekie, and Union3), and the cosmic microwave background CamSpec likelihood. We consider several dark-energy parameterizations, including Chevallier-Polarski-Linder, logarithmic, exponential, Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan, Barboza-Alcaniz, and generalized emergent dark energy, as well as the wwCDM model and non-flat extensions of Λ\LambdaCDM and wwCDM. Using the Metropolis-Hastings MCMC algorithm, we constrain cosmological parameters and compute Bayesian evidence with \texttt{MCEvidence}. We find that non-flat extensions remain consistent with spatial flatness, with Ωk0\Omega_k \approx 0. All parameterizations favor a dynamical dark-energy scenario with w0>1w_0 > -1, wa<0w_a < 0, and w0+wa<1w_0 + w_a < -1, consistent with a Quintom-B behavior. A moderate preference for dynamical dark-energy models is found relative to Λ\LambdaCDM, reaching up to 3.10σ\sim3.10\sigma for Lyα\alpha + CMB + galaxy BAO. When combined with SNe~Ia datasets, the deviations decrease to 2σ\lesssim2\sigma, corresponding to inconclusive preference. The Bayes factor (lnBij\ln B_{ij}) shows that model preference depends strongly on the dataset combination: wwCDM and owwCDM exhibit moderate evidence for Lyα\alpha + CMB + galaxy BAO, while most other models show weak or inconclusive evidence. With Pantheon+^{+} or DES-Dovekie, owwCDM shows strong evidence, whereas other models remain moderately favored.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.21976,
  title  = {Evidence of dynamical dark energy found via the DESI DR2 Lyman$\alpha$ forest},
  author = {Salvatore Capozziello and Himanshu Chaudhary and G. Mustafa and S. K. J. Pacif},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.21976},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

11 pages, 3 figures, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics